Rotor rust from sitting

[fstamand]

88 festy sat in my driveway most of the summer (winter beater). I took a drive around the block yesterday and brakes were scary at best. Pulsating etc. Took a look at the rotors and they are rusted badly.

I tried the redneck method of jacking up the front, placing it in 5th gear and applying the brakes gently, to try and free up the rust. Didn't work very well :eeeeeek:

Should I throw new rotors at it?

[freshtiva]

If they are pulsating the rotor may be worn unevenly.

[georgeb]

Drive it.

[htchbck]

I usually try driving it (very close to home at low speeds) and riding the brakes more than usual. Thats assuming the pads aren't worn down excessively. Then, after the pads eat most of the rust off, it the rotors look fine I just replace the pads with fresh ones and thats the end of it. If the rotors don't stop pulsating after most of the rust is cleared, then I'd say get new, but a lot of times the pulsating you are feeling can be caused by the transfer between the one good spot on each rotor (where the pads were sitting on the rotor, protecting them somewhat) and the heavily surfaced rusted parts.

[georgeb]

You can't just throw rotors at a Festiva. They're somewhat difficult to replace. The pulsating might be from an accumulation of rust where moisture was trapped. It might even out and it might not.

[htchbck]

I threw rotor at a Festiva once in the junkyard when I wanted to pull the hatch and found that it was completely eaten through with rust on the bottom... latch wasn't even attached anymore. It was pretty easy, and the rotor wasn't even from a festiva, it was from a Taurus sitting next to it

But in all seriousness, george is right, there is more to installing rotors on a festiva than simply unbolting the caliper brackets like a lot of cars. Hubs must be pressed apart and probably should replace the bearings while you have it apart anyway. One more reason to do an Aspire swap though

[WmWatt]

One summer does not a rusty rotor make. If you have some time steel wool will take it off. Otherwise let it wear off. I only put 2k km on my car a year. It sits most of the time. The rotors get noisy but brakes work fine. Go easy on the brakes, drive like an old lady, for a while.

[Pgh5spd]

I just wrote a much longer reply that the server ate, so the short version is knock the calipers apart and get the bushings loose. While you have the caliper off, run it in gear to see if the rotor's really warped. If it doesn't seem visibly warped, clean off what you can with a file and then put it all back together, greasing the bushings suitably. Also, you should find two little stainless slippers that one of the pads rides between. If you don't, get a hardware set that contains them, as that's another place where rust fusion can occur.

[fstamand]

I "threw" two new rotors at it last night. They are cheap so might as well. Car needs a safety check soon too.

The inside of the rotors were severely rusted/pitted, chunks missing, like these ones


R&R went well, 45 min a side. Rotors are really the worst design I've seen in my 20 years of shade tree mechanics! I was scratching my head when I saw a large washer on the floor, glad I found the front hub/knuckle diagram on this site.

I think The sliders are binding, even though I've put new synthetic grease on 'em. I'll have to investigate more

[walth]

I pulled my caliper a couple weeks ago and one of the slide pins was warped and was very hard to remove.

How thick is your caliper? vs spec? interesting pic.

I know nothing about canadian festiva's but that rotor is way different than US version. The US version is pressed on.

[fstamand]

It was not the rotor itself, It was in the same condition as the one pictured above (i.e. fubar'ed)

[htchbck]

It was not the rotor itself, It was in the same condition as the one pictured above (i.e. fubar'ed)

I'm gonna guess maybe a 20?? F250 ?

[walth]

lol 8 lugs. why didn't I pay more attention to that...